The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-11-12
Special Contributors.
CHRISTIANITY THE BASIS OF OUR
COMMON LAW.
BY REV. WILLIAM TUCKER, D. D.
Mount Gilead. o.

Ours is Christian civilization, and
Christian government. There are GER
tain ethical, practical and religious
principles that are Christian in their
origin, that underlie and permeate our
laws and institutions. Law and NOR
ais alike grow out Of mans nature and
relations. Mans domestic, social, bus
mess. commercial and political rela-
tions, which reveal his nature and his
wants are the natural source of all law.
The ethical principles revealed In the
teaching of Christ, are so perfectly
adapted to the nature and wants of
man. and are in such perfect harmony
with his many and varied relations in
life, that the wise legislators have in
corporated them into the body of our
common law. This fact has been de-
cided by our highest courts time and
again; and it is now recognized in the
practice of our jurists of greatest abil-
ity and learning. This is now a mat
ter of legal history in England, and in
the United States.
Justinian in his Institutes recognizes
the divine as well as the human source
Of law. He says Jurisprudence is
the knowledge of things divine and
human; the science of the just and the
unjust. Therefore, the knowledge OF
divine things were necessary as well as
the knowledge Of human things, to say
what law was in its administrative
sense, that is relating to the whole mass
of rights and duties protected and en-
forced by legal remedies" Hooker thus
defines the origin and principles of
law. He says 1T is to be known that
law is the common precept of men in
council, the coercion Of offenses which
are committed voluntarily, or through
ignorance, and the common warrant of
the body polite. Also, God is the au-
thor of justice, for justice is the Gre
ator and accordingly right and law
have the same Specification. (Hooker's
Claws of Ecclesiastical Polity," chapter
xvi, section 8.) These high legal au-
thorities settle the question of the
divine and human origin of law.
Christianity as system of truth re-
vealed to man by both a divine and
human teacher, meets precisely the
conditions and requirements recognized
as necessary, by these profound jurists,
to constitute body of laws. The very
idea of jurisprudence with the ancient
law-givers and philosophers, embraced
the religion of the country. This is
evident from the statement of nearly
all the standard legal writer's of an
tiquity. This being so, Christianity as
the religion of our country must be-
come a part of or system of common
law. "There never has been period"
said Story in his inaugural address,
as the Dane Professor in 1929, ''in
which the common law did not recog
nize Christianity as lying at its founda-
tion. 1t repudiates every act done in
tion. 1t pronounces illegal every con-
tract offensive 70 its morals. 1t recog
nizes with profound respect its holi-
days and festivals, and obeys their
sacred mandates. 1t attaches to per-
sons who believe in the divine author
ity of Christianity, the highest degree
OF credibility as witnesses" ''(StOry's
Miscellaneous Writings, pages 5l7, 533,
535). Judge Story might have added
to this enumeration, that laws in pur-
suance of the spirit of the constitution,
prohibit under penalties the name of
God being publicly blasphemously ut
tered, and will not allow the worship
of God to be wantOnly and openly re-
viled to the annoyance of believers, and
bad example to the public. This has
been settled by the judgment of the
Supreme Court of the State of New
York, delivered by Chief Justice Kent,
in the case of the People Us. Ruggles,
reported in Johnson's Report, Vol. s, PIP.
29O, 29S.
The legislative, as well as the judi
cial exposition of the constitution, sus-
tains the doctrine, that Christianity, in
its enlarged sense, as a religion revealed
and taught in the Bible, is not unknown
to our law. The ruling of the courts
in nearly every instance where this ques-
tion has been tried, as far as am in